, 2006, Reineking et al., 2010 and Müller et al., 2013). The resulting small average fire size (9 ha, Valese et al., 2011a) is due to a combination of favourable factors such as the relatively mild fire weather conditions compared to other regions (Brang

et al., 2006), the small-scale variability in plant species composition and flammability (Pezzatti et al., 2009), and effectiveness of fire suppression (Conedera et al., 2004b). However, in the last decades periodic seasons of large fires have been occurring in the Alps (Beghin et al., 2010, Moser et al., 2010, Cesti, 2011, Ascoli et al., 2013a and Vacchiano et al., 2014a), especially in coincidence with periods displaying an exceptional number of days with strong, warm and dry foehn winds, and extreme heat waves (Wohlgemuth et al., 2010 and Cesti, 2011).

When looking at the latest evolution Selleck MDV3100 of such large fires in the Alps, analogies with the drivers of the successive fire generations, as described by Castellnou and Miralles (2009), BLZ945 become evident (Fig. 3, Table 1). Several studies show how land abandonment has been increasing vegetation fuel build-up and forest connectivity with an enhancing effect on the occurrence of large and intense fires (Piussi and Farrell, 2000, Conedera et al., 2004b, Höchtl et al., 2005, Cesti, 2011 and Ascoli et al., 2013a). A new generation of large fires in the Alps is apparent in Fig. 5: despite the general trend in decreasing fire area over decades mainly as a consequence of fire suppression, periodical seasons such as from 1973 to 1982 in Ticino and from 1983 to 1992 in Piemonte sub-regions, displayed uncharacteristic large fires when compared to historical records. In particular, examples of fires of the first and second generations sensu Castellnou and Miralles (2009) Cobimetinib cell line can be found in north-western Italy (Piemonte Region) in the winter

of 1989–90, when the overall burnt areas was 52,372 ha ( Cesti and Cerise, 1992), corresponding to 6% of the entire forested area in the Region. More recently, exceptional large summer fires occurred during the heat-wave in August 2003, which has been identified as one of the clearest indicators of ongoing climate change ( Schär et al., 2004). On 13th August 2003 the “Leuk fire” spread as a crown fire over 310 ha of Scots pine and spruce forests, resulting in the largest stand replacing fire that had occurred in the Swiss central Alpine region of the Valais in the last 100 years ( Moser et al., 2010 and Wohlgemuth et al., 2010). In the following week, there were simultaneous large fires in beech forests throughout the south-western Alps, which had rarely been observed before ( Ascoli et al., 2013a). These events represent a new generation of fires when compared to the historical fire regime, mainly characterized by winter fires ( Conedera et al., 2004a, Pezzatti et al., 2009, Zumbrunnen et al., 2010 and Valese et al.